Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Over 60 pc of Chinese dislike Japan: Poll

Amid the frosty Sino-Japanese political ties, the first-ever China-Japan public opinion poll has revealed that 62.9 per cent of the Chinese respondents had a "very bad" or "not very good" impression of Japan, which had angered Beijing with its attempt to whitewash its wartime history. At the same time, 37.9 per cent of the Japanese respondents had a "very bad" or "not very good" impression of China, whose near-double digit growth and rising military power is a matter of concern for Tokyo. According to organisers of the poll, the Chinese respondents, though many of them have a negative impression of Japan, are still rational toward such issues as China-Japan economic relations and bilateral cooperation in regional affairs. About 65 per cent of the Chinese hold that economic relations between the two countries benefit both sides, and 59 per cent "firmly support" or "support" China-Japan cooperation in regional issues. The survey carried out in Japan shows that few Japanese people regard Japan-China relations more important than Japan-US relations.

United States, China duel in South AsiaThe South Asian nuclear arms race, one of the most potentially unstable and dangerous on the planet, has gone global. Not only are Pakistan and India feverishly racing each other to develop more sophisticated and powerful nuclear delivery and missile defense systems, they are looking increasingly to China and the United States to help them. China is no newcomer to this race. The massive infusion of North Korean Nodong missile technology to the Pakistan nuclear missile program over the past decade would never have been possible without the active, covert support of China, which shares common borders with both nations and is a strong, consistently supportive ally of both. The trade ran both ways. UPI`s Arnaud de Borchgrave has reported how Abdul Qadeer Khan, the immensely popular father of Pakistan`s nuclear weapons program, made many visits to North Korea providing crucial know-how for Pyongyang`s own program that is now believed to have at least two workable nuclear weapons.